Kobatake Family Residence Main House

The largest building on the Kobatake farmstead

The Kobatake Family Residence Main House (古畑家住宅主屋, Kobatake-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is the principal dwelling of a farmstead in Nakahata, Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, built in the Taisho era (1912-1925) and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 8 July 2008. It was altered around 1956.

It stands at the centre of a compound cut into a mountain slope, facing south. The house measures 17 metres by 13 metres on plan, with a building area of 261 square metres, under an Irimoya-zukuri roof of hipped lower slopes and gabled upper ends, laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles. None of the other seven registered buildings on the site comes close to it in size.

How many storeys it has depends on which part of the official record you read. The structure field in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database calls it single-storey; the Agency's own descriptive note calls it a two-storey building with a Tsushi-nikai. A tsushi-nikai is a low loft tucked under the roof, used for storage or sleeping and usually not counted as a full floor. The two descriptions appear to be the same house measured by different rules.

Why it was registered

The Kobatake Family Residence Main House was registered, as number 27-0485, for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency describes it as a large modern farmhouse that adds to the character of a mountain village.

Scale and setting carry most of that judgement. A 17-metre roof sits on the middle terrace of the slope, and the detached wing, the gatehouse and the storehouses are ranged around it. Take the main house away and the compound loses its centre.

The plan is worth a note too. The entrance is placed toward the east and set back from the facade, while the formal zashiki rooms and their companions on the west side are arranged in a staggered layout rather than a neat grid, each row offset from the next.

What to look for

The feature most people notice first is the row of mushiko-mado high on the front wall: narrow vertical slots formed in the plaster, letting light and air into the loft. They are the outward sign of the tsushi-nikai, and the reason the Agency's note counts a second storey.

Then look for the entrance. Rather than sitting in the middle of the facade, it is pushed east and recessed, leaving the western part of the front to the reception rooms behind it.

On the north side, the West Storehouse stands directly against the house on its Ishigaki stone base, so that dwelling and storehouse share a wall line.

Visiting

The Kobatake Family Residence Main House is still a family home. Its interior is not open to visitors, and there is no admission, booking system or open day.

Because the house stands in the middle of the compound, with the Nagayamon Gate and the storehouses between it and the eastern road, its facade cannot be taken in from public ground. From the road you will see at most part of the great roof above the gate and storehouse roofs. Entering the grounds to reach the front is not possible, so the best view is the compound as a whole from the lane, and any photographs should be of the exterior from there.